"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take."

                                                  Wayne Gretzky


A couple in their 30's were recently discussing end-of-world scenarios at a bar. Global instability. Emerging threats. The loss of America's pre-eminence. The scope of change makes them uneasy.

I remember feeling the same way during the oil embargo of the 70's. In college, we were told Japanese interests would soon own every major U.S. corporation. The economy was bleak.

Yet people survived those times.

Americans have survived much worse - a civil war, food and water shortages, a world war... and those survivors would tell you the same thing: life goes on. Change always delivers new opportunities, despite the chaos, decay or destruction we experience in the small space around us.

It might seem like the end of the world to some. It's not. It's just change. Another opportunity will emerge somewhere.

Here's what I tell my kids about all this: Don't be afraid, be curious! Take a risk. Travel. Experience the changes going on outside our four corners. Listen. Learn.

Then take your best shot.

Values, Needs and Relationships


Last night I attended a meeting to plan a community-wide appeal - petitioning neighbors to support a new zoning overlay. At stake: a positive, arts-based initiative that most people will support at face value. The goal is significant - two-thirds must support the initiative - yet very achievable.

During the meeting, one well-intentioned and passionate volunteer consistently used militaristic terminology to outline his desired approach to the task. He used terms like "lemmings", "sheep" and "obstacles" to describe his neighbors and "target", "slaughter" and "attack" to frame the actions required. He's a decent person and I'm not certain he was aware of the impression he created.

Sometimes sales people (or those tasked with a specific objective) forget the real opportunity: to develop and nurture relationships, using actions and words that stimulate positive, productive interactions well into the future.

Consider this approach: Use language and actions that are common to your audience's  values. Map the benefits of any initiative to the needs of the community and make it the #1 goal to develop stronger relationships through a shared sense of purpose.

Perhaps the group could utilize terms like "porches", "local economy", "creative", "party", "friends", "exciting", "opportunity", and "shared values" to re-frame the discussion.  Words and actions like these are more likely to win converts and result in both short-term and long-term gains.

As most of us already know, there is greater opportunity to convince someone to accept a new idea or try a new product when they do not feel they have a target painted on their back. (One person down. On to the next...)

Check out this concept further in my book... Selling The Moment: Values, Needs, and Relationships: Turning Ordinary Sales into a Lifetime of Success 

Creative Thinking, 2011-style

Here's a great comment by Michigan Govenor Rick Snyder, a former Gateway Computer executive and venture capitalist, made during his visit to the Detroit Auto Show.

“It is companies, it is innovators, it is entrepreneurs that are going to create a better future for Michigan,” Snyder said. “We are committed …to creating the very best environment in the world to create that environment for success.”

During the opening for the new Dali Museum, I had the good fortune to speak with an artist who rips apart old guitars to make new, better sounding and better crafted electric guitars. His goal: "I want to make guitars that kick ass."

Keep in mind, the former American icon, Fender guitar, is now made in China. That's as bad as saying Harley Davidson is now made in Taiwan. Good grief.

The only way to bring business–and jobs–back is to place your bets on young, brash artistic entrepreneurs like the one I met last night. And by the way, the very cool museum kicks ass, too.

Buy from a local artist. Visit the new Dali. Both decisions are a good bet on our economy and a great experience as well.

This Thanksgiving: thankful to be learning.

Last month, I decided to enroll in a creative writing class at the professor’s invitation. My instructor, Anda Peterson, is also a member of my writing group. Our small team, affectionately known as the Prose Posse, consisted of accomplished academics and journalists. I was the only technical writer in the bunch–the odd man out.

Writing mostly for corporations, I have learned tasks I will never perform directly. Technical writers will tell you that some subjects stay in their heads long after the project ends. Like a YouTube kitten or snippet of music that loops mercilessly, pulling the memory through one ear with a wire hanger eventually seems like a good plan. I wish I could forget how to perform Upper Extremity Sonography so I could make room for the name of the craft beer I sampled yesterday and quickly forgot. It’s most likely hanging out with my lost wallet and my third grade teacher, whose name I cannot recall.


Technical writing and instructional design is also a highly structured and deliberate process. My inner editor is a style guide that screams line-by-line revisions and keeps me on a strict budget. Deliver key objectives in line one. Select images that reinforce performance. Use quizzes to verify comprehension.

In truth, that box we love to hate and long to think outside actually gives us something to work with - a canvas on which to express ourselves. As a friend once told me, "creativity is our ultimate expression within defined parameters." I love trying to be as creative as possible, even when working with corporate or regulated material. However, open-sky, unlimited vistas are another matter. That blank sheet of paper can be a daunting partner.

So, I was immediately humbled by the burgeoning talent in Anda's classroom. Students in pencil thin jeans cranked out prize-worthy prose mere hours before class. A volunteer would recite lyrical lines, revealing yet another captivating story. Earnest and callow hearts searching the evening stars for answers or diving into the abyss for dinner. I panicked. My first submission was due in two weeks. My creative vocabulary felt limited by comparison, reduced to words like “happy," and “really." Pulling dead weasels through a rusty pipe would have been easier and more entertaining.

Despite my trepidation, the class seemed to respect every submission. I discovered creative writing courses are possibly the most life affirming event beyond kindergarten. Everyone brought something to share and then applauded. I don’t remember ever clapping in accounting or project management classes. Charitably, my classmates withheld the withering criticism my work fully deserves, an act of kindness typically reserved for the disabled or elderly. Based on the stories they submitted, I wondered if one or two of them were receiving community service hours for listening to mine.

Last night, I shared my experiences with a neighbor and how I hoped to live long enough to read something published by my fellow students. In return, I owe them the favor of purchasing their first published work, as payment in kind for helping me learn.

Thanks Anda. And to my classmates - a very special thank you!

Creating an Atmosphere of Collaboration

Improv teaches us to work with anything we are given (a prop, a line, an opportunity, a rejection, a bad economy…). No matter what it is, your FIRST answer is always yes. I want to use television as a metaphor for work.

IMPROV:

Whose Line Is It Anyway is an improvisational television show - a great example of working with anything and having fun doing it. The performers respond affirmatively to anything shouted out by an audience member. They work with what they are given and make us laugh. The energy seems to grow and grow.

"REALITY"

Now think about the reverse situation. Reality TV is an emotional wasteland where participants scream at each other and argue constantly. Sure, it's a human train wreck, and fun to watch for fifteen minutes and a beer, but would you really want to live there, 24 hours a day? You can almost feel the energy draining out of the room...

Where would you rather work: at the IMPROV or the Jersey Shore? What kind of office environment have you created?

Dan Pink, on learning and motivation from his book, Drive:

"Human beings have an innate drive to be autonomous, self-determined and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives."

"The opposite of autonomy is control. And since they sit at different poles of the behavioral compass, they point us to different destinations. Control leads to compliance; autonomy leads to engagement."

"It means resisting the attempt to control people - and instead doing everything we can to reawaken their deep sense of autonomy. A sense of autonomy has a powerful effect on individual performance and attitude. According to a cluster of recent behavioural studies, autonomous motivation promotes greater conceptual understand, better grades, enhanced persistence at school and in sporting activities, higher productivity, less burnout and greater levels of psychological well-being."

[Jane Hart] Organizations - and L&D departments in particular - need to relinquish control and support learner/employee autonomy. Social Learning requires a culture of trust in employees that differs from the "teacher/student" model of planning and controlling their every move.

Mark Oehlert, from the Defense Acquisition University makes the point:

“The US Airforce will give a pilot a $30m aircraft full of deadly tools – so why not trust them with Facebook at work?”

Who is my city?
(with a nod to Richard Florida)

I have been working with leaders from my city, posing the same question during my conversations: how do we define this city? Personally, I'd like to think I live in the Creative Capital of Florida–a city characterized by working artists and creative industries–but that has yet to be determined.

On a recent trip to Scotland, my partner and I enjoyed a couple weeks in Edinburgh. A historic and ancient city, it also happens to be the capital of Scotland. The new parliament building sits at the foot of the Royal Mile, just steps from Holyrood Palace. So, one naturally concludes, this city is defined by it's role as capital of Scotland. Wrong.

Upon entering the city, you are greeted by official signs proclaiming "Edinburgh: The City of Festivals". Interesting, intriguing, compelling, right?

This city defines itself through its culture offerings to the world; it's a place where millions travel every year to enjoy festivals that celebrate reading, theatre, opera, music, comedy... I think by defining their city as such, Edinburgh plants a flag that continuously challenges residents and leaders to take actions that sustain, nurture and develop those festivals. Otherwise, it's just another old city with a collection of old buildings. But the people are what make it special, and those people throw one hell of a party (several, actually).

So, who are you, St. Petersburg?

Social Learning: the human experience

I ran across this online and it immediately resonated with me: "An important facet of learning within a social context is social proof. Simply stated, when someone just like me does something, I’m more likely to try it myself."

The first person to deviate from the norm is a leader: someone doing something risky (yet positive) that eventually attracts another risk taker, then another, until ultimately many join in to create truly meaningful solutions or memorable experiences.

This You Tube clip illustrates the point. Watch what happens, and think about this in terms of a social learning process. Be patient. Reward your positive deviants. Some will follow right away, others will wait. Many will be inspired. Change happens.

source: www.positivedeviance.org

The 63rd Annual Roasterium

Why? Because it's hot out there!

Date: Thursday, July 8
Time: 6:30PM
Where: The Globe Coffee Lounge, downtown St. Pete
Food and Drinks: special menu items, plus $3 specials on beer and wine
Cost: Free and open to everybody
donations to benefit the Literacy Council of St. Petersburg

The original Roasterium was a gathering of 500 outdoor writers on July 8, 1947. Attendees feasted on " roast 'possum, cracklin' bread and swamp cabbage." I ran across a report of the event during research for a book and was struck by the wild name, wilder menu and the schedule of activities that yelled "Floridana". I proposed the idea of resurrecting the event (in name only) to our little writing group, affectionately known as the Prose Posse.

The 63rd Annual Roasterium may not have any charm school graduates, but we will try to give it our own funky spin, while providing an opportunity for local writers to network with each other, swap stories and promote their work. We are inviting writers and readers of all genres to join us and celebrate the art of writing.

Besides, "Roasterium" is like Laundamat and Dine-a-rama; it's faux Latin and pop culture, quirky and strangely appealing all at the same time.

Ya'll join us, okay?

Your boss’ boss wants you to succeed.

Your boss’ boss wants you to succeed. Maybe your boss’ boss’ boss. Regardless, there is someone lurking in your organization who is hell-bent on your success. You just have to find him or her.

Come to this person–your ultimate champion–with a pronouncement that you have just created additional revenue and you will most likely get a giant pat on the back. Tell this same person you have creatively rearranged pallets of inventory and they will nod politely and check their Blackberry. However, if this new design also saves or generates those millions, your shoulders will get dusted off at the next team gathering.

That creative discovery won’t happen by doing the same thing, the same way every day. It will signal a shift in thinking, a new type of performance, created by a new type of learning. Not just a new course, but a new type of learning. That type of learning is different, challenging and often scary to implement. It requires a tolerance for change and ambiguity. It may also mean trying this approach on little or no funding.

I once worked along side a colleague who one day showed me an example of the work his team had just produced in Marketing. It was a beautiful, four-color magazine, with enough dye cuts to embarrass an origami artist. I was suitably impressed. The campaign later failed and was ultimately scrapped due to poor customer response. More specifically, customers hated it.

To the uninitiated or misguided leader, it’s the show that matters, not the rehearsal. It’s the victory that counts, not the practice. Those of us in education understand things clearly; mastery at one leads to the other.

The result is that many of us learn how to be creative. We innovate to survive, at times surrounded by departments funded like lottery winners. Scarcity of time and resources forces us to be nimble, adaptive and supremely creative. The best designers I know are not the ones with unlimited budgets, but the people who can, as a creative designer at an entertainment giant colorfully put it, turn “farts into fairy dust”.

Adversity is a great teacher and organizations that truly value creative talent and innovation will emerge from any down economy stronger and more competitive as a result.

American businesses are crying out for innovation and better solutions, while China and India, with hungry, creative talent, eats our proverbial lunch. With that kind of competition, the challenge is clear, extreme and unremitting. I see two emerging trends that, taken together, may systemically and permanently a better way to approach and value adult education while addressing the needs of corporate America.

First, the Internet–more accurately, its audience–has spawned a generation of social communities bound together solely by technological applications. We are observing learners who rapidly engage disparate content from multiple sources, and then synthesize it into meaningful applications. Educators are still grappling with best practices that can work in this new world, but the momentum requires us to apply lessons as they are learned, rather than ignore these trends and wait for the answers.

Second, and most important to me, is the growing zeitgeist within the business community that the old B-School mentality needs a swift kick in the right brain. A complex world requires people schooled in design thinking: holistic approaches that address challenges from a more creative perspective.

As a former MBA student, I can attest that my education was focused on two lessons: quantitative analysis and learning how to handle excessive workloads without suffering a mental meltdown. In fact, a professor of mine once confirmed that part of the curriculum was sheer volume, an exercise to simulate multiple, simultaneous real-world stressors. Personally, I would have preferred a day or two learning those lessons in a jet fighter plane rather than two semesters of cash flow valuation.

Yet I can’t fault him or the school. Semantically parsing the term “business administration” we most logically conclude the goal of an MBA program is to create administrators or managers, not leaders. The post World War 2 work environment, the era when most of these programs were designed, required a great deal of human administration: input, control and quantitative analysis. Hence, our schools have carried forward a scholastic tradition that rewards excellence in accounting, analysis and control.

If we want leaders in a world of technological change and complexity, we need to design curricula that reward multi-disciplinary problem solving and higher-level design skills. Someone who gets lost in the numbers won’t see potential, only chaos.

Leaders like Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, is a champion of design-based thinking and "the opposable mind”, the ability to use both sides of the brain to lead. The school now seeks to create individuals who can assess and balance conflicting ideas, business models, or strategies and come up with an new way of doing things.

Likewise, design schools are also seeking to bridge the talent gap from their perspective. In Sarasota, Florida the Ringling College of Art and Design hosts an annual Design Summit for business executives, and is now offering “Business by Design” a course that seeks to explore the role of artistic thinking in a competitive business environment.

Your boss, or boss’ boss, perhaps MBA-educated, feel the pressure to be more creative, more “design-like” in their approaches. Enter you. I see gold in your training department and your experience as an educator. Not in the tools or dry erase pens (if there was gold in there, educators would be the last to let their employers know). Let’s break it down.

If your organization has a great talent development team, then it most likely has employees who already know how to creatively solve problems within extremely limited budgets. They are addressing emerging technologies, not through command and control, but by watching how customers and other employees leverage them. They have spent a lifetime innovating and designing solutions that enhance human potential and performance. I believe educators are our best, underutilized resource for success in an emerging era of design-based thinking.

Your boss may be reading this. Perhaps he or she knows the world of business needs people like you. They want–desperately need–employees who can look over the horizon to anticipate the impact tomorrow of decisions implemented today­. It’s an education you have gained by leading the learning process. I bet you have those critical skills.

Your next challenge is making sure your boss, or your boss’ boss, discovers this fact.